Miscellaneous
OAG starts auditing books of local units
The Office of Auditor General (OAG) has started auditing the financial transactions of the local units for the first time in line with the constitutional provision.The Office of Auditor General (OAG) has started auditing the financial transactions of the local units for the first time in line with the constitutional provision.
The audit of financial transactions of local units in the last fiscal year 2016-17 that ended in mid-July has been started, according to OAG officials.
A group of auditors have been mobilised in districts, including Humla, Jumla, Dolpa, Mugu, Kalikot, Bajhang, Bajura, Manang, Mustang and Solukhumbu, in the first phase, the constitutional body said, adding that the auditing in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur would begin in the next few days. “This is the first time that the OAG has been involved in auditing the transactions of the local governments,” said Ramu Prasad Dotel, deputy auditor general.
Article 241 of the new constitution has authorised the OAG to conduct auditing of the local levels alongside offices under federal and provincial governments, courts, parliament, President’s Office, Vice President’s Office and the constitutional bodies, among others.
Under the previous constitutions, the OAG could audit transactions of various state organs, constitutional bodies and the offices under the central government. But the local bodies used to have their audits as per the provision under the Local Self-Governance Act-1999. Previously, a village development committee was required to have audit conducted by an auditor approved by the District Development Committee (DDC) on the recommendation of the accounts committee constituted by the Village Council. Similarly, the auditing of a municipality used to be done by registered auditor appointed by the Municipal Council, with the OAG looking into the DDCs.
“The involvement of the OAG, which adopts ‘international standards’ with trained human resources, is expected to bring more transparency, accountability and integrity to the financial transactions of the local units,” said Dotel.
Financial transactions of the local levels are expected to come under the spotlight when the OAG audit report is discussed at Parliament. The government has added nine more local units to 744 that came into operation in March, taking the number of local units to 753.
The OAG has hired around 175 auditors for auditing the transactions of the local units, according to officials of the constitutional body.
“Auditing at the local units will be conducted through hired auditors. But our permanent staffers will audit at the offices under the central government and other state organs,” said Dotel.